Hose it down: Fire engines spray gallons of water over the plane's engine

Flight QF32 had taken off from Singapore on its way to Sydney when the drama occurred, forcing the crew to fly back to Changi Airport, where the damage to the number two engine on the left wing could be seen.

Six fire engines swarmed around the double-decker aircraft when it landed as a local reporter said he could see smoke still coming from the engine.

The engine closest to the fuselage on the left wing had visible burn marks and was missing a section of plate that would have been painted with the red kangaroo logo of the airline. The upper part of the left wing also appeared to have suffered some damage.

Passenger Rosemary Hegardy, 60, from Sydney, said she heard two bangs and saw flames from her window.

'There were flames - yellow flames came out, and debris came off ... You could see black things shooting through the smoke, like bits of debris,' she said.

Glad to be back on the ground: Passengers from the superjumbo are shown through Changi Aiport, in Singapore, after their plane was forced to make an emergency landing

'There was immediately rapture, shouting and crying - it was an amazing sight,' he said. 'We didn't quite feel safe at the moment of touchdown because you've got rolling all the way till the end of the runway, we then parked at the end of the runway and we were still leaking fuel from the engine, so fire-fighters came and had to take care of the fuel leak.

'The (engine) one on the left hand side kept running and they weren't able to turn off that engine - so we were still half an hour or so when we were on the ground and still sceptical about what was going on and we just wanted to exit.'

He added: 'It's a little bit like a Hollywood movie that you think you are watching but you are watching it outside of the window, rather than on the telly. It was a really scary sight.'

Lars Sandberg, a DJ from Glasgow, Scotland, who was on the plane said he was 'just happy to be alive'.

He told the BBC website: 'Everything was going smoothly in the first 15 minutes and then there was a sharp bang. I thought some metal container fell down in the cargo area, but the carriage started to vibrate and there was a bit of smoke.

'I was sitting right next to engine two. People around me were visibly shaken and we all realised that whatever happened wasn't normal. There was a mother with two children who was quite worried.'

He went on: 'The landing was quite smooth, although the plane felt a bit heavy. When we landed there was fuel leaking from the plane, something ignited and blew the case of the engine.

'When we got off and saw the engine itself and the back casing burnt off, that was pretty scary. It was a nerve-wracking experience and I feel a little bit shaken up. I'm just happy to be alive and safe in the terminal building.

Debris: Indonesian police officers and locals inspect parts of the Qantas superjumbo that rained down on them

Witnesses on the ground on Batam Island in Indonesia told of hearing a 'very loud explosion'.

People were photographed holding pieces of the engine cover they had found on the ground. 

'It sounded like a bomb,' said one witness.

Another witness spoke of hearing a screeching sound before the explosion. 'I thought I heard an explosion and when I looked up I saw a plane going round and round and there was smoke coming out of its tail,' he said.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce denied there had been an explosion but said he was grounding his entire fleet of A380s

'Then three or four pieces of metal fell from the sky.'

A schoolteacher said some of the small pieces of debris crashed through the roof of a classroom, but no children were hurt.

Police officer Bobby Baharudin said debris was 'scattered over Batam'.

It was not immediately known if ash from the erupting Mount Merapi volcano had caused the engine problem - the volcano, which is spewing thick clouds, lies to the south of the route the jet was taking.

Geoff Reay, an Australian who lives on Batam Island, said his neighbours heard an explosion and ran out into the street.

'There are bits of aircraft lying on the ground and it landed about 200 yards from where our little boy goes to school. Other bits have fallen down in the suburb of Dutamas,' he said.

Indonesian officials are in the process of finding out if anyone has been killed or injured by the falling debris.

At first it was feared the jet had crashed - widespread rumours through Twitter reported that the plane had come down, resulting in Qantas officials issuing immediate denials.

Kompas, a leading Indonesian newspaper, had reported on its website that it was 'suspected that a Qantas plane exploded in the air near Batam.'

Mr Tatang Kurnia, head of Indonesia's Transport Safety Board, said the plane emptied fuel and returned to Singapore to make an emergency landing shortly after it had taken off from the island republic.

Blast: Indonesian officials hold a large section of the plane's debris bearing the iconic kangaroo logo

Fairfax Media in Australia quoted an anonymous Qantas pilot as saying that engines were routinely shut down on aircraft which fly around the world but 'it must have been quite a catastrophic failure if it blew parts off an engine.'

A Qantas jet suffered a similar incident in August when an engine on a flight to San Francisco exploded, causing debris to tear holes in the engine cover.

Investigators with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found the engine's turbine blades had either fractured or broken away. The cause of that explosion in the Boeing 747's Rolls Royce RB211 engine is still under investigation.

Qantas denied there had been an explosion today and said the plane landed safely with no injuries.

The distinctive double-decker Airbus costs £156m and came into service in September 2007.Qantas have been using them since 2008.

The flight is a regular service that flies between Sydney, Singapore and London and is usually flown by a superjumbo. Qantas' A380s can carry up to 525 people.

A Qantas statement said the Airbus 380 plane experienced an 'engine issue' soon after taking off from Singapore for Sydney. It made a safe emergency landing in Singapore at 11:45am local time with 433 passengers and 26 crew on board, the statement said.

'Some media reports suggested the aircraft had crashed. These reports are incorrect. No Qantas aircraft has crashed,' it said.

Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said the airline is now suspending all flights of its six Airbus A380 jetliners.

Emergency: Passengers emerge from the superjumbo in Singapore. They are now being offered counselling

The plane was flying from London to Sydney via Singapore. Debris rained down on the Indonesian island of Batam

Fairfax Media in Australia quoted an anonymous Qantas pilot as saying that engines were routinely shut down on aircraft which fly around the world but 'it must have been quite a catastrophic failure if it blew parts off an engine.'

A Qantas jet suffered a similar incident in August when an engine on a flight to San Francisco exploded, causing debris to tear holes in the engine cover.

Investigators with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found the engine's turbine blades had either fractured or broken away. The cause of that explosion in the Boeing 747's Rolls Royce RB211 engine is still under investigation.

Qantas denied there had been an explosion today and said the plane landed safely with no injuries.

The distinctive double-decker Airbus costs £156m and came into service in September 2007.Qantas have been using them since 2008.

The flight is a regular service that flies between Sydney, Singapore and London and is usually flown by a superjumbo. Qantas' A380s can carry up to 525 people.

A Qantas statement said the Airbus 380 plane experienced an 'engine issue' soon after taking off from Singapore for Sydney. It made a safe emergency landing in Singapore at 11:45am local time with 433 passengers and 26 crew on board, the statement said.

'Some media reports suggested the aircraft had crashed. These reports are incorrect. No Qantas aircraft has crashed,' it said.

Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said the airline is now suspending all flights of its six Airbus A380 jetliners.

Qantas crew members leave the Changi air terminal in Singapore after making the emergency landing

Mr Joyce told a news conference in Sydney: 'We will suspend those A380 services until we are completely confident that Qantas safety requirements have been met.'

There are currently 37 of the A380 aircraft in operation around the world.

Singapore Airlines has 11 of the superjumbos, Emirates 13, Qantas six, Air France four and German carrier Lufthansa three.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are among a number of carriers who have placed orders for A380s. In all, Toulouse-based Airbus has 234 orders from 17 countries for the superjumbo.

Qantas said it was arranging hotel rooms in Singapore for passengers and crew of the affected flight today.

'We are currently planning for an aircraft to depart for Singapore to bring passengers back to Sydney tomorrow morning,' a spokesman added.

Qantas A380s use Rolls-Royce RR.L Trent 900 engines. Shares in Rolls-Royce slumped 1.2 per cent in early-morning trading following the incident.

Emirates and Singapore Airlines said all its A380s would be operating as scheduled.

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association said safety was a growing concern for engineers at Qantas as outsourcing of work continued.

'It's about time Qantas listened to the warning signs,' spokesman Steve Purvinas said.

'We know that the dramatic increase in the number of safety incidents involving Qantas jets coincides with an increase in the amount of work that is no longer carried out in-house.'

Mr Purvinas said Qantas had shut down every in-house engine workshop in Australia in the past 10 years, and was naive for believing the current number of maintenance engineers could maintain its growing fleet of A380s.

 

Emergency: Passengers emerge from the superjumbo in Singapore. They are now being offered counselling